BSNL not to hike rural tariffs

State-run BSNL on Friday said it will not raise rural telecom tariffs but will reduce some of the development expenditure in those areas to bridge the financial loss of Rs 1,254 crore (Rs 12.54 billion) caused by the latest Access Deficit Charge regime of telecom regulator TRAI.

"There is less possibility of hiking the fixed line tariff in rural areas. All we will do is reduce many of the development plans in rural areas as we have taken a hit of Rs 1,254 crore due to the new ADC order, which is a cause of worry for us," BSNL chairman and managing director A K Sinha said.

Rural customers have a lot of faith in BSNL because it is the sole provider of connectivity to them, he said, adding "we do not want to lose customers."

He said the PSU would not touch the urban tariff as well since it more or less matches the cost-based tariff. There is no loss for the PSU on the urban front, he added.

"If we have to touch rural tariff, we will think twice or thrice. There is no move to raise tariff in a hurry," he said.

Recently, Sinha had said BSNL was looking at various options, including hiking the rental for fixed line in rural areas and cutting down some of the major rural connectivity projects to compensate the loss caused by the new ADC regime.

He had also said the PSU had written to department of telecom listing out these options to offset the losses.